Today, the workforce diversity has already become one of the main trends in the development of the contemporary labor market. At the same time, the workforce diversity is the result of the growing impact of multiple factors, such as the growing ethnic and cultural diversity of the contemporary society, the affirmative action and the development of policies of equal employment opportunities. In such a situation, the growing workforce diversity leads to considerable social and economic changes as well as raises a number of socioeconomic problems especially for baby boomers. The major problem is that baby boomers comprised the core of the labor force in the late 20th century but, since the beginning of the 21st century, they have started to retire, while their retirement raises the problem of closing the gap in the labor market (Lobel, 2146). To close the gap successfully, such countries as the US have to encourage either the accelerated growth of the birth rate or to attract immigrants. The latter is the fastest way to close the gap that leads to the further diversification of the workforce. Hence, the generation of baby boomers contributed to the considerable economic growth and respective growth of the labor market, but nowadays they retire that raises the problem of new employees and leads to the diversification of the workforce.

Background of the issue

Historically, the generation of baby boomers was the generation that emerged after World War II, when the birth rate downturned, while the post-war period marked the boost of the birth rates and rise of the generation of baby boomers. As baby boomers grew up they provided the economy with the huge number of employees. The growth of the labor force market facilitated the economic growth and stimulated the creation of new jobs to meet the demand for job in the labor market. However, as baby boomers grow old, they retire and the gap in the labor market opened wide. As a result, immigrant employees have started to close the gap, while the rise of the number of immigrant employees aggravated the problem of persisting inequality in the workplace environment and in the employment. This problem existed in the past but was not so obvious because of the large number of baby boomers, who supplied the labor force in the market and interests of minority were of little significance for employers and the public. As the number of baby boomer employees have started to decline rapidly, the inequality in the workplace environment and employment and the need to the ongoing affirmative action became obvious. In addition, the drop of baby boomer employees’ number contributed to the growing workforce diversity.